The gospel frees you from needing anything from anybody and it frees you to give everything to everybody.
— Tullian Tchividjian
‘It is finished.’ May those words land on your bones for the nights when fear tells you the cross was a beginning and you must finish grace.
— Jon Acuff (via heartbeatofatwentysomething)
(via francineannabelle)
When the time comes to open your mouth in prayer and say those first few words, let everything pour out. God is not expecting some eloquent speech, as if our prayers need to meet a standard. He just wants you, messy and real and true. You’ll find His grace starts to restore you piece by piece, almost without you knowing it. Take your time; He’s patient. He’s not yelling at you to catch up: He meets you exactly where you are.
it is Grace.
it is Grace that holds me here and keeps me here and breaks me open here. broken open: an alabaster jar, cracked and flowing the highest love. Grace, the mender of my brokenness and the urge to step through the door and into life.
it is Grace that leads me to a life of service and lowliness. it’s in the dirt, face-to-face with the messiness and the sinners, that i find joy, and it is Grace that leads me here.
Grace that says, “you are Mine.” Grace that keeps my heart steady. Grace that is consistent when i am not. Grace that is free.
overwhelmed. i’m letting my “roots grow down into {Grace}.” eph. 3:17
Beautiful.
Grace is not the obstacle to obedience; grace is the catalyst to obedience.
— Tullian Tchividjian, God Comes Down - Part 2 (via mrscaseyknight)
(Source: kidwiththebulletsoul, via mrscaseyknight-deactivated20130)
His kindness, tender mercies, and unrelenting love break my heart like a hammer and draw me away from sin with more power than the fear of wrath.
— Paul Washer (via alightforrevelation)
(Source: instructmehowtothankthee, via alightforrevelation)
God’s faithfulness to forgive is unconditional. Meaning that no ignorance, abuse, or misunderstanding of His faithfulness and forgiveness will ever convince Him to stop.
God forgave you when you saw yourself as the worst and even acted like the worst because He sees in you the best. You are His glory.
Have no fear. But if you do fear, have no fear.
(Source: lov-eis-reason)
I meet Christians who are super-glossy, picture-perfect, law-abiding people, but they are absolutely miserable and difficult to be near. Their every movement is dictated by a strict rigid ruleset that is motivated by a desperate fear. If your efforts are not driven by grace — that God absolutely loves you no matter what — then you will punish yourself towards an invisible standard that looks like success but feels like slavery. Such a standard might work for a little while to conform your behavior, but it will never become a part of you: it’s just an apparatus that imprisons you. Only grace can truly be internalized to melt your heart, and though it can take longer, a truly tenderized heart follows God with all joy and perseverance. This is motivation by grace and grace alone.
